1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system that discharges a spray that is capable of temporarily disabling an engine of a fleeing vehicle in order to allow law enforcement personal and others to disable aid thereby detain the vehicle.
2. Background of the Prior Art
Many people have witnessed high speed chases on television wherein a fleeing suspect in a vehicle attempts to escape from pursuing law enforcement. While such chases can be griping and entertaining to a fan of reality television, such chases are extremely dangerous. Oftentimes, a suspect will race his vehicle at over 100 miles par hour in an attempt to elude capture. At such speeds, the potential for the suspect to loose control of the vehicle is high resulting in disaster, such a danger being especially acute when the chase is on crowded surface streets. Although the police have high speed chase training, they are not immune from loss of control of their vehicle, also adding to chase danger. Additionally, the suspect can hit a pedestrian or another vehicle causing injury and death to innocent bystanders. This is especially true when the suspect ignores traffic control devices such as stop signs and red lights. Even when the chase occurs at slower speeds and the suspect exhibits less reckless maneuvers, the chase is usually conducted by several police units, preventing these units from attending to other police matters. Many suspects involved in high speed chases are doing so because they are intoxicated and want to avoid going to jail. Such suspects are dangerous at any speed, whether being chased by police or not.
Obviously, when a suspect attempts to flee from police in a motor vehicle, the police want to shut the chase down as fast as possible before anybody gets hurt or killed. One method used by law enforcement to disable a vehicle involved in a high speed chase and bring the chase to a halt is to shoot out one or more tires of the fleeing vehicle in order to slow and ultimately stop the vehicle. This method often proves successful, especially when a suspect realizes that the police are shooting at him and he does not want to be shot himself. However, the potential exists for a bullet to ricochet and cause unintended injury or damage. Moreover, the possibility exists that a bullet may enter the passenger compartment of the pursued vehicle causing death or injury to the driver or others in the vehicle, which others may not be willing passengers. Additionally, the sudden rapid deflation of the chased vehicle's tire can cause the vehicle to go out of control, again raising the potential for undesired injury or damage. Accordingly, the process of shooting out a vehicle's tires tends to be a last resort of modern day vehicle stop techniques.
Another method being used by police to disable a fleeing vehicle involves the use of spike strips which are strips that have hollow spikes disposed along the length of the strip. As a vehicle passes over the strip, one or more spikes are forced into the tire causing a slow bleeding of air out of the vehicle's tires. This results in a more controlled deflating of the vehicle's tires, allowing for a gradual loss of ability to drive, and minimizing the potential for the vehicle to spin out of control. Many current spike strip models have enable/disable features which allow the device to be enabled while the suspect vehicle passes over the strip and thereafter to be quickly disabled so that pursuing police cars are not affected by the strip. Although spike strips are effective when deployed, they require that the police know where the suspect is heading so that an officer, not in direct pursuit of the suspect, can be positioned ahead of the vehicle in order to be able to deploy the spike strip into the vehicle's travel path. This can prove quite difficult especially when the suspect makes a lot of direction changes during the chase or when only two or three police units are chasing the vehicle as is often the case in rural areas. Additionally, the officer operating the spike strip must exist the police vehicle and must be positioned by the side of the road. This not only takes this officer out of the actual chase and places the officer into harms way, many chase suspects are familiar with the spike strips and how they are deployed, and upon seeing an officer on the side of the road, such suspects simply serves out of the way of the strip. Sometimes, such suspects swerve directly into the officer operating the spike strip.
Another method used by police to stop a fleeing vehicle is known as a PIT maneuver wherein a police vehicle strategically strikes the rear quarter panel of the suspect vehicle causing the suspect vehicle to spin out of control and to stop. Although this method works quite well, it requires precise execution and is typically performed by an officer with specific training in such maneuvers, which officer may not always be available. Additionally, as the maneuver requires police vehicle to suspect vehicle contact, the maneuver places all concerned, as well as bystanders, into harms way and the maneuver is not performed when the chase is being conducted on busy streets due to the extreme danger to bystanders.
A cousin to the PIT maneuver is for the police to simply ram the suspect off the road. This maneuver, which often results in the crash of the suspect vehicle, can be very dangerous. Oftentimes, the suspect vehicle will crash into a fixed barrier resulting in injury or death. While such a result is preferred over injury or death to an officer or a bystander, the paramount goal of the officers involved in a police chase is to end the chase without injury to anyone including the suspect.
Therefore, there exists a need in the art for a system whereby police can quickly stop a suspect in a fleeing vehicle while minimizing the risk to themselves, bystanders, and the suspect. Such a system should not require a police officer to exit the police vehicle in order to perform the method of the system and should not require a high level of specialized training to execute the method so that the method can be performed by most officers. Even in chases involving very few pursuit officers, the method should work appropriately. Ideally, such a system is relatively simple in operation.